In online/web-based meetings involving desktop sharing, windows displayed on a presenter's device can be shared with a plurality of meeting attendees by simultaneously displaying the image of the windows on the attendees' devices. The desktop on the presenter's device is captured as a series of images, including all of the visible windows. Typically the image data form the presenter's desktop is transmitted to a meeting server, which then distributes the image data to all of the attendee devices. As multiple windows may overlap and obscure each other, some portions of the background windows may not be visible unless the presenter brings that window to the foreground.